Six years after treatment, Gustafson and six others who responded to the treatment are still alive, along with two of the eight people who did not respond. Two of the responders, including the one who died, had a cancer recurrence; Gustafson’s cancer has not come back.
So, n=8, 25% didn’t work.
This is not statistically powered enough to make any conclusions.
Scientists should probably caution that more research is needed.
But to clarify, it’s n=16. Half of those who received the treatment responded and started producing immune cells. Six years later 7 of the 8 who responded are still alive, while only 2 of the 8 who didn’t respond are alive. This is one of the deadliest cancers, so having 9 out of 16 still alive after 6 years is an incredible success. More work is needed to find out why half didn’t respond, but going from a 13% survivability rate to 56% is a pretty great result for an early trial.
Six years after treatment, Gustafson and six others who responded to the treatment are still alive, along with two of the eight people who did not respond. Two of the responders, including the one who died, had a cancer recurrence; Gustafson’s cancer has not come back.
So, n=8, 25% didn’t work.
This is not statistically powered enough to make any conclusions.
Scientists should probably caution that more research is needed.
But to clarify, it’s n=16. Half of those who received the treatment responded and started producing immune cells. Six years later 7 of the 8 who responded are still alive, while only 2 of the 8 who didn’t respond are alive. This is one of the deadliest cancers, so having 9 out of 16 still alive after 6 years is an incredible success. More work is needed to find out why half didn’t respond, but going from a 13% survivability rate to 56% is a pretty great result for an early trial.